The present invention relates to a roll-paper setting mechanism in a facsimile system or in an electrophotographic copying machine.
The roll-paper is frequently used, for the copy paper, in a facsimile system or in an electrophotographic copying machine. The roll-paper must be set at a predetermined position in order to ensure an accurate paper supply. However, the roll-paper setting operation is not easy because the roll-paper is considerably heavy and the roll-paper shaft supporting mechanism is enclosed by a housing of the facsimile system or the electrophotographic copying machine.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a novel roll-paper setting mechanism for ensuring an accurate setting of a roll-paper.
Another object of the present invention is to facilitate an exchange of the roll-paper in a facsimile system or in an electrophotographic copying machine.
Other objects and further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. It should be understood, however, that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.
To achieve the above objects, pursuant to an embodiment of the present invention, a portion of a housing of a facsimile system or an electrophotographic copying machine is rotatably constructed to expose a paper feeding mechanism including a roll-paper support mechanism. A preliminary support mechanism is secured to the rotatable portion of the housing for preliminarily supporting the roll-paper. The preliminary support mechanism is correlated with the roll-paper support mechanism so that the roll-paper, preliminarily supported by the preliminary support mechanism, is transferred to and accurately supported by the roll-paper support mechanism when the rotatable portion of the housing is rotated to enclose the paper feeding mechanism.